Hugo and Seb from iSyndica, Veer (not sure who specifically - presumably Brian et al) and Mark from Microstock Solutions will also be there.

It became too late to change my mind 8.5 months ago. 

I'm not sure Daryl will be attending the panel as I imagine he'll be busy preparing for PPE which starts the following day.  Still, I'll ask him and add him to the list if he plans to attend.

Hey Tyler, do you think the UGCX event is worth going to for someone who is already fairly successful in Microstock? I know almost nothing about the event and was curious.

Quote from: asiseeit on October 16, 2009, 22:46

Hey Tyler, do you think the UGCX event is worth going to for someone who is already fairly successful in Microstock? I know almost nothing about the event and was curious.

yeah, I don't know really.  I think it is very hard to quantify the worth.  I think such an event is more worthwhile to successful microstockers than unsuccessful ones though.  Or more worthwhile to people who are working at it full time (or want to be full time)as apposed to a hobby.

I think networking is one of the best benefits of such an event.  Getting to meet and chat with the big names in microstock is encouraging and interesting.  By big names I mean the owners of most of the sites, the owners of third party applications like iSyndica and LookStat, and the really successful microstockers.  To answer if your $75 payment will translate into $75 more sales... who knows.  If you get one tip or new thing to try from the event it would quite easily translate into $75 worth of sales.  If you are already in New York I would recommend going as it will only cost you the $75 and not hotel / flight / meals / etc. etc. which makes the trip harder to rationalize. 

So in short, Yes I do think it is worth the entry.  Obviously, since I am going and paid my entry fee.  I think getting to meet all the people there is worth the fee.... and hopefully I will get something more I can put into practice.

Also understand that the 'Business of Microstock' panel is in the same venue and same date (different time of day) to UGCX, but they're actually two separate events.  There's no photography track in UGCX this time like there was last time - there are no tracks at all - so the conference content is more 'media agnostic' than focused.  I don't want anyone paying the full registration fee for UGCX ($375) with the expectation of 1.5 days worth of photography specific content.  Read the conference schedule to see if it appeals to you. 

Also, just to confuse the separation, if you go to UGCX you get free entry into the Business of Microstock panel. 

In short, please do your due diligence and check out the websites of each event before committing to the event. 

Finally, there's a good list of attendees at the top of this thread and in the link that Tyler posted above. A few people who weren't on the list (the link) have mentioned in the comments that they're coming too. As Tyler says, the networking is fantastic and definitely among the most valuable parts of attending a conference like this.  The issues is that there's rarely conferences that are so focused on microstock, so if the $75 ticket price is all you'll lose, I doubt very much that you'll regret it. 

I just got back from UGCX and Photo Plus Expo in New York.  It was a great week with lots of shooting, lots of meeting new and old faces, and lots of interesting discussion.

My take-away from the conference:

Microstock has come a long way in the last few years and garnered a lot of acceptance, but there still a lot of confusion and general misunderstanding between the two camps (microstock / traditional stock) and very few photographers who have a successful business model taking advantage of both platforms.  Personally, I think the work flow, thought process, budget requirements and rewards are so different between micro and traditional stock that it is very challenging for shooters to succesfully do both.

There are those who feel the market is saturated both in terms of number of images already available and number of buyers.  I don't believe either case is true.  I have found  subjects that are totally uncovered in microstock, in addition to constantly changing styles and buyer needs, which continually create new holes.  There was a lot of talk about natural looking images at the conference - something that a lot of microstock imagery is not.  As for buyers, I feel the public knowledge of microstock is still virtually non-existent and until the average person knows what microstock is, I don't feel the buyer market will be saturated.

Here are a few of my favorite Quotes:

... That first page, that is super saturated, very colorful, very bright - people are tired of it, they want to use more authentic looking images, something that looks real, something that has real humans on them. - Yuri Arcurs

We have expanded massively both in terms of revenue and in terms of volume, I don't see us getting anywhere near saturation actually, we think there's massive opportunity still in this market. Catherine Gluckstein - iStockPhoto

The trends again, naturalistic imagery is really big for us, as is the green and spiritual imagery.  It's all about faster fresher more real imagery. - Catherine Gluckstein - iStockPhoto

More images do not equal more dollars for me.  My best images, that is what's turning out more dollars. - Kelly Cline

All the things that are already out there, you can take a concept but make it your own, make it fresh, make it your own.  That is going to bring a buyer to our images.  - Kelly Cline

I think there is a big demand for creative content ... there is a lot of people that just want a finished template, but it's rejected fairly often.  - Yuri Arcurs

It's about capturing people in their particular situation, as if you were not there.  You are just doing your thing and you just have to get the right angles, the right lighting to make it as natural as possible. - Andres Rodriguez